Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Configurations

Pick one to see which models it runs. More memory lets larger models fit; bandwidth sets how fast they answer.

Specifications 16.0 GB configuration

Best LLMs for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 16.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
B66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JBMellum2.1 Thinking (12B-A2.5B)JetBrains	Q4_K_M	9.0 GB	26.3 tok/s	Runs well
B58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AGLing 3.0 Tiny (8B-A1.3B)Ant Group (inclusionAI)	Q5_K_M	7.3 GB	39.5 tok/s	Runs great
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 12BGoogle	Q5_K_M	10.6 GB	5.0 tok/s	Slowtight fit
B66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4BNVIDIA	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB	16.0 tok/s	Runs well
B67Good quality (B) · 67 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	IOK2 Horizon 7BInstitute of Foundation Models	Q3_K_M	7.1 GB	10.4 tok/s	Runs well
B64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 E4BGoogle	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB	16.0 tok/s	Runs well
C49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	LALFM2.5 8B-A1BLiquid AI	Q4_K_M	6.7 GB	41.4 tok/s	Runs great
C49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	DGMaple Preview (20B-A1B)DeepGrove	Q2_K	9.7 GB	63.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BZNanbeige4.2 3BBOSS Zhipin (Nanbeige)	Q4_K_M	5.5 GB	17.3 tok/s	Runs well
C49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B ThinkingBaidu	Q2_K	10.7 GB	35.2 tok/s	Runs welltight fit

Best Image models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 16.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	FP8	10.2 GB	23 s	Runs welltight fit
A84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX 3 Image KleinBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	10.2 GB	2.9 min	Very slowtight fit
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	Q4 GGUF	10.1 GB	76 s	Slowtight fit
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	8.0 GB	58 s	Slowencoder unloaded after use
A79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BERNIE-Image TurboBaidu	Q4 GGUF	7.4 GB	1.7 min	Slowencoder unloaded after use
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-ImageAlibaba (Tongyi)	Q4 GGUF	10.1 GB	8.6 min	Very slowtight fit

Best Video models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 16.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
C50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 65/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	LLTX-Video 2BLightricks	FP16	8.0 GB	11.1 min	Runs wellencoder unloaded after use
B55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Wan 2.1 T2V 1.3BAlibaba	FP16	8.4 GB	1.8 h	Very slowencoder unloaded after use
A74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	THY-OmniWeaving (8.3B, unified video)Tencent	FP8	7.8 GB	4.4 h	Very slowCPU offload
C53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 61/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Wan 2.1 VACE 1.3BAlibaba	FP8	8.0 GB	1.7 h	Very slowencoder unloaded after use
C53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 60/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	ZACogVideoX 5BZhipu AI	FP8	9.6 GB	72.1 min	Very slowtight fit · encoder unloaded after use

Best Decision models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 16.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	FGLiNER2.5 DecideFastino	Q8_0	1.2 GB	89 ms	Runs great
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Llama Prompt Guard 2 86MMeta	Q8_0	1.0 GB	101 ms	Runs great
A+86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JAJina Reranker v3.5Jina AI	Q8_0	2.3 GB	211 ms	Runs well
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SAFRIDA-DecisionsSber AI	Q8_0	1.7 GB	146 ms	Runs well
A74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	KGLiClass ModernBERT Large v3Knowledgator	F16	1.5 GB	83 ms	Runs great
A84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JAJina Reranker v3Jina AI	Q8_0	2.3 GB	211 ms	Runs well
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	OAOpenAI Privacy FilterOpenAI	F16	3.8 GB	14 ms	Runs great
A72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	MLDeBERTa v3 Large Zero-shot v2.0Moritz Laurer	F16	1.6 GB	91 ms	Runs great

Other products with the Apple M1 (16 GB)

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)Apple · Laptop · 8 or 16 GB · $1,299–$1,499Product page (opens in a new tab)
• Mac mini (M1, 2020)Apple · Mini PC · 8 or 16 GB · $699–$899Product page (opens in a new tab)
• iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021)Apple · Desktop · 8 or 16 GB · $1,299–$1,699Product page (opens in a new tab)